IVRs, aka, Irritable Voice Response Syndrome

I have never met a person who likes to call customer service 800-numbers.  Even people working in the contact center industry hate calling other companies because we have no faith the person on the other end can competently help us (I love the irony. :)).

But sometimes there is no way around it. I understand the need for call centers, and I’ve been happily employed at two during my career. But as a customer, the bane of my existence is the IVR!  

If you are not familiar with call center lingo, IVRs are the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems used to route calls.   Most products or services today are complicated, and IVRs route calls to specifically skilled representatives based on the customers interaction with a computer voiced prompt.  The end result is typically some agents are trained to answer some questions, and other agents can answer other questions.

The Problem

The problem with IVRs is they put too much artificial distance between the customer and the service provider.  What begins as a benign situation easily escalates into something else, and it is due to technology that is supposed to help, but it only serves to put up a wall between two people who need each other. That is the antithesis to customer service excellence.

The Typical Situation 

Me:  Places call. I’m in good mood, but I have braced myself for this call.  I know what is coming. You know you have been here too.  

Business:  Call answers with an IVR.  Professional automated voice answers: “Thank you for calling Business ABC.  Most questions can be answered at our website www.businessabc.com.”  IVR has not paused for breath yet.

Me:  Internal dialogue begins. “Don’t thank me yet for my call.  You have no idea what is coming.  If I could have found out the answer through your website, I would have, but your website stinks.”

Business:   IVR continues. “For our office hours, press 1.  For directions to our office, press 2. For our fax number, press 3.” 

Me:  Internal dialogue starts again. “As crummy as your website is, I could have at least got this information.” 

Intermezzo Thought

Here is the dollar impact. So far the call has lasted two minutes and I am no closer to an answer to my question, and my mood is beginning to sour.  This is a real cost because when I finally get the agent, I am going to be ticked and spend at least 3 minutes letting them know I am unhappy.

Business:  IVR continues. “For billing, please press 4.” 

Me:  Internal dialogue continues. “I do not have a billing issue.  I have a kind of in-between issue.”  

Business:  IVR continues. “To schedule service, please press 5.” 

Me:   Internal dialogue again, “Well, that sounds closer, but I have a real problem, not a regular service call.  What do I do?”

Business:  IVR continues, “To repeat this menu, please press 6.”

Me: Internal thought, “ARGGGGG!!!!! I can’t remember what option was what, and what applied to me.” I am returned to the IVR of repetitive destruction! Noooooooooo!

The Saga Continues…

I finally reach a real person to explain my problem.  After the agent takes 2 minutes to verify it is actually me calling about my account, they realize they do not have either the information or the authority to help me.  I am transferred and get thrown back to the IVR! Noooooo!!!

When I reach a second agent, after another 2 minutes verifying it is me again, and another 3 minutes me explaining my issue, they too discover they cannot service my call.  It takes me 30 minutes to find someone who can help me, but when I finally do it takes the agent 5 minutes to explain the answer to my question. 

Even with this final answer, I leave the phone call not very confident that I have the correct information.  I am 80% sure if I went through this entire process again that I would get a different answer from a different agent.  That is not the feeling you want your customers to have after any interaction with your organization.

It’s not as if this happens with one company.  This is something that occurs almost every time I call a company for assistance.  It could be my cable bill, my mortgage company, my bank, or another company I have a relationship with.  Sadly, the list does not seem to end.

The Guru’s Solution

My radical and preferred solution is if you truly desire to deliver superior customer service, then ditch the IVR.  This is a revolutionary idea, but the idea of a human voice answering the phone will immediately demonstrate to your customers you care.  I also just don’t think I could be convinced that the additional minutes in phone cost for misroutes or the aggravation it adds to the customer, which will reflect poorly in service surveys, that it is worth it.  IVRs are expensive to operate and my theory is if your organization answered the phone with a live agent, the reduced minutes in phone calls would easily balance or reduce cost.

What I suggest is make the ‘operator’ role a job to be coveted.  Rotate your best agents in and out of the role, and pay them a slight shift differential to work it.   These agents should be the employees who are your top skilled people, and they are the friendliest of your team.  Being that operator can be a monotonous position, so help it become a role that agents aspire to.  The ‘operator’ shows that the agent is valued for their superior service and expertise.

If you feel you can’t go there, then at least review how to qualify calls and the clarity of your IVR system.  Customers are annoyed to be asked multiple times for verification.  I would advocate no cold transferring either.  Again it is radical, but would your agents think twice about transferring a call? You bet!

In summary, make sure any technology used in your organization enhances the customer experience.  We seem to mistake internal business efficiencies gained by using various technologies as improving the customer service experience. But what benefits the organization does not always benefit your customers. The power of the human voice will always trump computer automation.

As always, if the Gurus can help, please let us know.  Now for our office hours, please press 1. 

Can You Hear Me Now?

I was in New Mexico, a gem of a state, earlier this month, when the local Albuquerque weather man mentioned for a brief second that October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.  This is an initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, and this is its purpose.

Held each October, National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) is a national campaign that raises awareness about disability employment issues and celebrates the many and varied contributions of America's workers with disabilities. (http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/ndeam/)

To put this into perspective, take a look at the September 2012's employment numbers.

Labor Force Participation
People with disabilities: 21.9% 
People without disabilities: 69.3%

Unemployment Rate
People with disabilities: 13.5%
People without disabilities: 7.3% 

Back to the DOL's Month of Awareness   

How great is this that we are celebrating me! I have a disability.  It isn’t an obvious disability, but I am partially deaf.  To answer the most common questions, I was not born deaf.  It happened in my late 20’s.  The docs say that part of it is hereditary, which I have had surgery to try to correct (Thanks, gene pool!). Part of it is nerve damage that cannot be corrected (Thanks, Sony Walkman from the mid- 90s!).  The other question asked is will it get any worse. The docs tell me the loss is stable for now, and any subsequent hearing loss will probably be due to the natural aging process (Thanks, Mother Nature!).

My left ear is decent, and I do not wear a hearing aid.  My right ear without my hearing aid is, to use the phrase of the Sopranos, “Forget about it!”  Even with the hearing aid, some things challenge me in both ears.  But I still love my work, I live life pretty much the same as I did before my hearing started to go, and I feel I have much left to contribute to the world.   

How Does This Affect My Work?

In the two main jobs of my consulting business, as a facilitator and an instructional designer, overall not much.  Certainly, being in a class environment provides more challenges, but I have adapted.  One, I move around the room a lot to get close to the speaker. That helps me, and it also makes me look like an amazing facilitator with this insane level of energy as I jump around the room in order to hear the responses of the class.  Next, I ask repeatedly, “What was that?”, which a full hearing person would ask as well in a large room with large group of people

As an instructional designer, it doesn’t matter at all. Instructional design works requires me to research the subject matter, formulate teaching strategies, and finally capture them in usually some electronic form.  These are typically one-on-one conversations or individual work.  Sometimes when working alone I wear those darn headphones again.   I just seem to get more done when “You Should Be Dancing” plays on the iPod.

But I wouldn’t say that it hasn’t affected me at all in the workplace.  I definitely had a more challenging time when I worked in the corporate world.  Meetings were difficult for me.  In meetings the expectation was to speak up immediately to react to something said.  That was difficult for me to be in one physical spot in a room of 6 to 10 people, so I was quite quiet in that environment.  Also, whispering is impossible for me to hear, and there is much of that in the physical space of a cubicle farm.  I don’t tend to react to something said under a certain decibel. 

I believe my professional reputation leaned more towards aloofness and introversion, and many times it was mostly I did not hear things in real time.  I cared deeply about what I did, and had opinions, but to answer within a few seconds to something said wasn’t something I could do.   Also, with deafness, I don’t know what I miss, so I might have not heard something critical, but there was no way for me to know that until it showed up in the future. (Yikes!  The few times that occurred.)     

But Enough About Me

I think of the many talented people who are not participating in the workforce facing similar challenges.  I have a friend with autistic children.  Their disability is not Rain Man severe, just to use a common frame of reference,  but it does affect them.  They are smart, funny, gifted girls, who have some cognitive challenges with reading and processing information.  What is going to happen to them when it is time for them to work?  If someone doesn't hire them, then what are they going to do with their days?  For income?     

For me, since my disability can't be seen, most people did not realize I had a problem, and no one treated me differently. On one hand that is what I wanted, but then on the other hand that was a problem in itself.  Then I think about the people with disabilities that are easy to see, making employers more cautious of hiring them.  They look different with a physical disability, or they act different because of a mental disability.  We all come to the hiring and promoting process with biases, and it is unrealistic to think we do not.  Legally, we cannot overtly discriminate (this is a good thing), but we do so subtly. 

My question to you, what does your leadership team look like?  Do you have anyone with a disability, or something that makes them different? We tend to hire and promote people like ourselves, and if you do not have a disability or know of someone with one, it is only natural to unconsciously bias ourselves.  I am not saying it is done maliciously, we are simply human.  We must fight this.  

We at The Customer Service Gurus support the Wounder Warrior Project (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) and The Adult Literacy League (www.adultliteracyleague.org ) primarily because of the work both organizations do to help people with disabilities increase their chances of employment, and of course all the other amazing work they do.   We encourage you to also support these organizations.

Final Thoughts 

I cannot speak on behalf of all people with disabilities, but in general I think the desires are the same as anyone without a disability.  We want to fully participate in life to the best of our abilities, which includes working.  It isn't something special being looking for, but it is a sense of partnership between employee and employer to work together.  That whatever can be done is done to make a person with a disability no different than any other employee.

My opinion is employers see the ADA (American Disability Act) as one more thing that is a nuisance to their organizations, instead of seeing it as a way to access a credible and dedicated resource of talent.  If it takes a wheelchair ramp to have a successful long-term hire, then why not do it?

Also, this is the right thing to do because of karma.  It is very possible at some point you will be the person with the disability, or it will affect someone you care about.  A car accident or illness could change your ability to function in an instance.  Your cognitive and physical abilities may deteriorate with age, and you won't be able to perform your job exactly the way you do today.  Shouldn't we live in a world where accommodations are made to help you make a livelihood as long as possible, and as long as you choose to do so?  

This year's theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month is "A Strong Workforce is an Inclusive Workforce: What Can YOU Do?"  So what can you do?  What will you do?  Decide today to something.  If you have any questions about my disability or I can help in anyway, as always I am happy to. My email is stacey@thecustomerservicegurus.com. 


Take care until next time!